Background
This is a bit of a long one, since Ryuko’s backstory is heavily interwoven (pun intended) with the lore of Kill la Kill’s world, so let’s get it started.
Tens of thousands of years ago, an alien being known as the Original Life Fiber crashed landed on Earth. From this being came the parasitic Life Fibers, tiny organisms resembling strands which feed off of the bioenergy of other living beings’ nervous systems. However, if they possess a host internally, the hosts die due to the strain, and so the Life Fibers decided to cover their hosts skin instead. The Life Fibers primarily attached themselves to homosapiens since they were the most developed and intelligent race at the time, speeding up their evolutionary process and making them create clothing as an easy way to have the Life Fibers in contact with their skin. Eventually, the Life Fibers went dormant as humans continued to evolve, but the Original Life Fiber was kept watched over by the Kiryuin Clan.
During Ragyo Kiryuin’s time as the head of the clan, she awakened the Life Fibers from their dormant state. She had married a man by the name of Soichiro and used his vast scientific knowledge and research to conduct experiments with the Life Fibers. In one such instance, she tried to infuse her daughter Satsuki with the Fibers, but this turned out to be a failure due to Satsuki growing beyond the age where this was possible. So Ragyo had another daughter and experimented on her at a much earlier age (implied to be the child’s first few moments in the world).
Unfortunately, this child also ended up being a failure, and so Ragyo discarded her. Except… she wasn’t! And outraged by his wife’s cruelty, Soichiro saved his baby daughter, faked his and her deaths, and hid from his ex-wife as he worked on a plan to stop her and the Life Fibers. Soichiro was no more, in his place stood Doctor Isshin Matoi and his daughter, Ryuko Matoi.
Ryuko was raised by Doctor Matoi for the first few years of her life, but they never really got along with each other and would constantly be at odds. He eventually shipped Ryuko off to boarding school where she became a punk rebel, often getting into fights with other students. One day however, she got a message from her dad asking her to return to the home. Ryuko complied, but upon arriving there, she found her mansion blazed in flames, and a Scissor Blade in her father’s chest.
Isshin told Ryuko that she would find his killer with the other half of the Scissor Blade. But before he could tell Ryuko the rest of the story, the girl noticed somebody else in the house, who was also wielding a Scissor Blade. In anger, Ryuko chased after her father’s murderer, only for them to get away when she got outside. Ryuko’s house then exploded from the fire, and her dad was no more.
Fast-forward six months, and we are where we begin the series at episode 1, with Ryuko’s quest for her father’s killer having led her to Honnoji Academy, where she enrolled in the school in order to face Satsuki Kiryuin and find out what happened to Isshin. Unfortunately, Ryuko was beaten by one of the students at the school, and in her defeat Ryuko returned to her burnt down house. That was where she discovered Senketsu, a kamui made entirely out of Life Fibers. Though they struggled to work together for the first while, the two eventually became an unstoppable duo. They fought their way through Honnoji Academy’s strongest before learning of the real threat in Ragyo Kiryuin and the Life Fibers. Ryuko, Satsuki and all of their friends fought valiantly, and eventually succeeded in stopping Ragyo, and although Senketsu was lost during the conflict, Ryuko had managed to secure a peaceful future without the threat of Life Fibers hanging over the world.
Experience
Ryuko is 17-years old and has been a fighter for most of her life. While she has gone through all of grade school, she says that she had been a delinquent for most of that time, and often got into fights with other kids. While she is very proficient in combat, she is self-taught both in martial arts and swordsmanship, and does not have any formal training. Even still, she has managed to compete with and even defeat formally-trained students such as Uzu Sanageyama, who was captain of the athletic clubs at Honnoji Academy and a Kendo practitioner.
For a period of time (and by that I mean one episode), she formed and was the star of Honnoji’s Academy Fight Club. Basically an excuse for her to beat the hell out of other students while she was trying to fight Satsuki without having to wait for them to attack her.
At the end of the series, Ryuko loses Senketsu and the Rending Scissors, and with the threat of the Life Fibers gone from their world, she brings her days of combat to a close as she lives a more normal life alongside Satsuki, Mako, and the rest of their friends.
Arsenal
Scissor Blades
The Rending Scissors are a pair of giant Scissor Blades created by Doctor Isshin Matoi out of hardened Life Fibers in order to cut and destroy Life Fibers, as they are one of the only weapons that can keep tougher Life Fibers from regenerating when damaged, since they are capable of cutting Life Fibers from both ends simultaneously. Doctor Matoi uses them in their Rending Scissors form during his fight against Nui Harime, but they are broken apart and separated as Nui takes off with one half while Ryuko finds the other half embedded in her father’s chest. After fighting Nui on the Naked Soul, Ryuko gets the other half of the blade.
Ryuko is an expert at using her Scissor Blades in both single-sword and dual-sword form, as well as in their complete Rending Scissors Mode. While she is not formally trained with a blade by any means, she is no slouch either and can make up for her weakness through raw power and blitzing speed.
The Scissor Blades have additional modes outside of the Rending Scissors as well. Ryuko can also shrink the Scissor Blades down to the size of a normal kitchen knife to carry them around in her pocket.
Modes
Decapitation Mode
The Scissor Blades have additional modes as well, with the first one being their Decapitation Mode. The Scissor Blades extend out into longer swords which Ryuko uses for her finishing move, Sen-I-Soshitsu (Fiber Lost). This attack rips apart an opponent’s Goku Uniform and absorbs their Life Fibers. When Nui had possession of one of the Scissor Blades, she transformed it into a scythe-like weapon.
When combined into the Rending Scissors, they grow in size and become pincer-like in shape.
Alumni Mode
The Scissor Blades grow to such a great size that they pierce the clouds. This mode gives Ryuko access to the Graduation Ceremony move, where she combines the two enormous scissors together and uses them to slice through her target. She used this in the series epilogue to destroy Honnoji Academy after it was taken over by Rei Hoomaru.
Senketsu
Senketsu is a living sailor uniform known as a kamui, with his fabric being made 100% out of Life Fibers. He was created by Doctor Matoi for Ryuko and her inevitable battle against the Life Fibers, even imbuing him with some of her DNA so that only she can wear and communicate with him. While most Life Fiber clothing has one Banshi thread to hold it together, Senketsu has multiple.
As a kamui, when Senketsu is fed blood, he transforms into a scanty outfit that increases his wearer’s physical prowess. The better synchronized Ryuko is with Senketsu, the more powerful they become and the less blood Ryuko will need to supply Senketsu to keep the synchronization active. This posed a problem for them in their first few transformations, since Ryuko was incredibly embarrassed by her sexual appearance. In order to properly be worn, a kamui must become the “wearer’s skin”, or in Ryuko’s word, she needed to “get naked”. Upon accomplishing this and becoming one with her kamui, the duo became much more powerful. Should Ryuko run low on blood to feed Senketsu, they will revert back to normal as to avoid having Ryuko pass out from blood loss.
Even in the standard Life Fiber Synchronized form, Senketsu offers a nice few abilities. Upon defeating a Life Fiber-user, Senketsu can absorb the Life Fibers from their attire into himself, increasing his abilities and helping him evolve. He has thrusters on his back to propel Ryuko at high speeds, as well as to vent steam when they begin to reach their time limit. Senketsu can also fire out grapples from the bottom of his skirt to anchor Ryuko to the ground. Likewise, Ryuko can also pull off small threads of Senketsu to wrap around objects. She has used these threads to turn her Scissor Blade into a makeshift tennis racket, and wrapped it around her blade again to use it as a grapple and pull Nonon’s Symphony Regalia out of the sky. Senketsu also has a number of different forms that Ryuko can access to adapt to different battles.
Forms
As Senketsu absorbs Life Fibers throughout the series, his power evolves and he gains the ability to transform into new forms to adapt to different combat situations.
Senketsu Senjin
Ryuko unlocked her first transformation during her battle with Ira Gamagori. In this form, Senketsu sprouts spikes all over his body, which she can control the size of for piercing attacks. It can also be used to create Wolverine-esq claws, and even perform a buzzsaw-like spin attack. Useful for getting out of grapples, as demonstrated by her fight against Scourge Regalia.
Senketsu Shippu
Unlocked during her battle with Nonon Jakuzure, Senketsu Shippu allows Ryuko to fly as the bottom half of her attire becomes a jet propulsor. Thanks to her small size, it allows Ryuko to maneuver around large objects with ease.
Senketsu Mubyōshi
Another form that Ryuko unlocked during her battle with Nonon, this form grants Ryuko the power of sound negation. Should she be hit with a blast of sound, she can absorb it and send it right back at her attacker.
Berserker
During her fight with Nui Harime, Ryuko got so pissed off at her that it caused Senketsu to lose control, transforming them into this ugly Berserker form. While this form greatly increases her physical power, the rage also completely blinds her, and she’ll attack anything friend or foe. It also causes blood to shoot out of her body, and if the form is active for too long, it will cause her to die from blood loss. She can be brought back by being calmed down.
Senjin Shippu
As the name indicates, this is a combination of the Senjin and Shippu forms, and gives Ryuko access to both of their abilities at the same time.
Senketsu Kisaragi
Ryuko’s final transformation at the end of the series which combines the power of Junketsu and Goku Uniforms into one with incredible power. It allows Ryuko to fly, and turns her hair blonde.
Important Note: Some people argue that the Kisaragi form is a one-time power-up that requires outside, and thus Ryuko shouldn’t get it in a Death Battle scenario, but I think that’s just a misinterpretation that stems from the context in which it was obtained and used.
In order to combat Ragyo and her Shinra-Koketsu, Ryuko absorbs the Life Fibers of all the Goku Uniforms of the Honnoji Academy students in her presence. These Life Fibers transform her into Senketsu Kisaragi, and she then flies off to her final battle with Ragyo. After the fight, Ryuko reverts back to her standard synchronized form, and then falls to Earth. Senketsu burns up during the fall due to the overload from absorbing Ragyo’s energy and dies.
The important thing to note here is that Ryuko has been powering up on the Life Fibers of Goku Uniforms throughout the entire show, and that’s how she evolved into the other Senketsu forms. This was obtained through the exact same means, and it’s only a “one-time power-up” because Senketsu never gets used again. It stands to reason that Ryuko would have been able to access the form if Senketsu didn’t die after the battle, so it makes sense to allow her to have it.
Seki Tekkõ
A gift given to Ryuko by her homeroom teacher and Nudist Beach splendid naked officer, Aikuro Mikisugi. It’s a glove with a needle in it that Ryuko can use to feed Senketsu a set and stable amount of blood for and throughout their transformations.
Abilities
Regeneration
Thanks to her Human-Life Fiber hybrid physiology, Ryuko has a very powerful healing factor that has allowed her to survive some crazy things and recover in seconds, such as:
Ragyo rips out her heart. The Life Fibers in Ryuko’s body pulled it back in and sealed the wound in seconds.
Ragyo sliced her in two through her stomach. Ryuko was back in action moments later.
Ragyo stabs her through the chest dozens of times during their final conflict, and Ryuko regenerates from all of them in moments.
Ragyo’s own healing factor allowed her to survive being sliced in two Ryuko’s regenerative abilities should also be comparable to Ragyo’s, given they have the same Human-Life Fiber hybrid
It should be noted that Ryuko’s healing factor stems from the Life Fiber threads in her body. Should these threads be cut, she will be unable to regenerate and fatal wounds will kill her.
Feats
Power
Her first time wearing Senketsu, Ryuko tries taking him off and accidentally jumps up and breaks ceiling of their mansion (Ep2)
Ryuko and Satsuki’s willpower creates a concussive blast (Ep3)
Final clash between Ryuko and Satsuki creates air pressure that destroys the ground around them, hits off the school wall then bounces back at them. Blows out, bounces off the wall back towards them, then blows out again. (Ep3)
Ryuko knocks dad, son and dog into the sky with one hit (Ep7)
Ryuko pulls Nonon’s giant Symphony Regalia mech out of the sky (Ep10)
Ryuko and Nonon create multiple explosions in the sky (Ep11)
Berserker!Ryuko and Satsuki create a whirlwind of fire that covers the schoolyard in their clash (Ep12)
Ryuko creates a huge explosion without Senketsu even (Ep19)
Junketsu!Ryuko knocks over a helicopter (Ep20)
Ryuko deflects blast from dual scissors blades with no problem. It creates a massive burst of wager in the ocean. (Ep22)
Ryuko kicks Nui through multiple sheets of metal (Ep22)
Ryuko and the Naked Soul pierces through the Primordial Life Fibre and destroys it (Ep23)
Sen-I-Soshitsu Graduation Ceremony cuts through the building (Ep25)
Ryuko cuts through two buildings without Senketsu (Ep20)
Ryuko in Kisaragi puts a hole in the Cocoon Sphere Genesis by flying through it (Ep24)
Scaling
Ira throws a student across their huge schoolyard. Flings the student all around the yard with it, smashes him into the wall of the school. (Ep1)
Middle schooler Satsuki fragments Ira’s iron armour with a sheathed sword (Ep9)
Satsuki creates an air blast (Ep15)
Satsuki and Nonon wreck a huge metal building (Ep15)
Satsuki topples a metal building by cutting through some of its supports (Ep15)
Ira’s Bakukai-Gouteki face cannon busts through the signal booster. (Ep24)
Speed
Ryuko (no Kamui) and Mako run on top of a boulder that rolls down a ramp, slams into a pillar and then explodes. (Ep4)
Ryuko dodges needles fired from Tsumugu’s needle gun (Ep5)
Ryuko moves at “full speed”, so fast that she creates afterimages. (Ep6)
Ryuko and Ira blocks airsoft bullets (Ep8)
Ryuko runs horizontally up to the top of a pillar (Ep8)
Houka’s suit can predict a person’s movements, but Ryuko still moves faster than he can initially react (Ep10)
Ryuko moves with multiple afterimages (Ep10)
Ryuko outruns missile (Ep10)
Ryuko and Nonon fly above clouds (Ep11)
Ryuko dodges Nonon’s symphony barrage (Ep11)
Ryuko and Satsuki move as blurs in their fight (Ep15)
Ryuko jets around Nui (Ep18)
Junketsu!Ryuko moves too fast to be seen (Ep21)
Ryuko cuts off Nui’s arms in an instant (Ep22)
Ryuko and Satsuki jet off to Honnoji (Ep22)
Ryuko and Ragyo fly around the sky (Ep24)
Ryuko dashes up a wall and jumps around the Defcon Mech (Ep25)
Senketsu flies back into the atmosphere (Ep24)
Ryuko in Kisaragi flies from Earth into space in seconds (Ep24)
The Rending Scissors are sent by Senketsu to re-enter the atmosphere and fly down to Ryuko (Ep25)
In one slash, Ryuko manages to reduce hundreds of tennis balls into fibers (Ep2)
Scaling
Nui dodges Tsumugu’s needles with no sweat (Ep12)
After eating special croquettes, dad and son run so fast they turn to butter (Ep13)
Uzu blocks wads of paper money fired from guns (Ep14)
Money being shot out of guns is strong enough to kill people. (Ep14)
Satsuki slashes up all the citizens surrounding her in just a few seconds and swings. (Ep15)
DTR climbs up the stadium (Ep17)
Ragyo dodges a point blank missile (Ep20)
Nui dodges bullets from Tsumugu (Ep21)
The remains of the Primordial Life Fiber travels from the sea to Honnoji Academy (Ep24)
Ragyo flies into the atmosphere. (Ep24)
Durability
Note: Due to her powerful healing factor, there’s an important distinction to be made between Ryuko’s durability and her survivability.
Ryuko tanks Juggernaut of Left Jabs (hundreds of left jabs) (Ep1)
Ryuko tanks the spiked glove, breaking it upon impact. Claims she doesn’t feel them. (Ep1)
Ryuko takes hits from tennis balls that knock her out of the schoolyard and into the sewers (Ep2)
Satsuki taps Ryuko with her sword hilt and sends her flying into building (Ep3)
Knives bounce off Ryuko with no effect (Ep5)
Ryuko takes a barrage of attacks from Uzu’s Kendo stick (Ep6)
Ryuko gets beaten to hell by Uzu, launches into the air hundreds of feet, fragments the ground when she hits the ground (Ep6)
Ryuko gets smacked around the arena on chain by Mako, hit by point-blank RPG explosion. Reverts back to normal, but is relatively fine. (Ep7)
Ryuko fights and defeats Ira, Houka and Nonon in a row without rest (Ep9-11)
Ryuko keeps taking beatings from the whips. (Ep9)
Ryuko is blown back by sound. Senketsu says he gets nauseous from it, and Nonon says it rattles bones. (Ep10)
Ryuko survives giant explosions from Nonon which fragment the ground they’re standing on (Ep10)
Ryuko and Nonon create multiple explosions in the sky (Ep11)
Nonon crashes right into Ryuko and smashes her into a stone pillar (Ep11)
The force of Nonon’s sound blasts destroys the ground Ryuko is standing on, but Ryuko survives it (Ep11)
Berserker!Ryuko walks through lava (Ep12)
Berserker!Ryuko gets slapped to hell by Mako (Ep12)
Nonon destroys the Nudist Beach HQ. Ryuko and Satsuki are caught in an explosion. (Ep15)
Ragyo rips out Ryuko’s heart. She regenerates from it. (Ep18)
Junketsu!Ryuko takes an explosion that blows her across the whole battleship (Ep21)
Ryuko survives ripping Junketsu off of her body, even though it’s sewn into her Life Fibers and Nui says she’ll die from the shock of it. Her wounds close up afterwards thanks to regeneration. (Ep21)
Scaling
Mako takes dozens of tennis balls to the face from two-star tennis club president (Ep2)
Nonon and club members survive explosion from Tsumugu’s clothing that blows up the bathroom (Ep5)
Ira tanks RPG with no issue (Ep8)
Mako was sent flying by an explosion (Ep14)
Ragyo unfazed after being stabbed through heart (Ep18)
Ragyo beats the hell out of Satsuki (Ep18)
Ragyo can shrug off missiles with no problem (Ep20)
Ragyo lets herself be stabbed through the hands by the Bakuzan blades (Ep24)
Satsuki unfazed by a cut to the neck (Ep25)
Skill
Defeats the kid gang in a few seconds (Ep1)
In one slash, manages to reduce hundreds of tennis balls into fibers (Ep2)
Uses scissor blade as racket with fibre from kamui as net (Ep2)
Cuts open Aikuro’s fly by kicking up her scissor blade (Ep3)
Beats two crocodiles without Senketsu (Ep4)
Uses a strand from her clothes to grab the Scissor Blade from a distance (Ep6)
Formed the Honnoji Academy Fight Club so she could fight all the clubs in Honnoji on her quest to beat Satsuki (Ep7)
Precisely cuts off Senketsu parts of uniforms with the scissor blade and catches them (Ep14)
Uses a blood spurt to blind Satsuki (Ep15)
Deflected Ragyo’s blade when she cut her. Ryuko’s fibers weren’t completely severed, so she managed to survive. (Ep23)
Fights Nui without Senketsu (Ep24)
Defeated the multiple club presidents, the Elite Four, Satsuki Kiryuin, Nui Harime, & Ragyo Kiryuin
Scaling Explanations
Goku Uniforms draw their power from the Life Fibers woven into their fabric. One-Stars are 10% Life Fibers, Two-Stars are 20%, so on and so forth. Senketsu is made of 100% Life Fibers, so it should naturally be much stronger than the others. Plus, upon defeating a Life Fiber-wearer, Senketsu absorbs the Life Fibers that gave them their power in the first place and adds it to his own. Senketsu Kisaragi is even the result of absorbing the Life Fibers of all the Goku uniforms in Honnoji Academy.
Anytime Ryuko has been defeated by lower-star enemies, it was in her earlier parts of the series when she and Senketsu weren’t completely in-sync. Ryuko has managed to defeat almost anyone we would be scaling her to in the first place regardless, from Satsuki, to the Elite Four, to Nui, to Ragyo.
Weaknesses
Senketsu maintains his transformations by drinking Ryuko’s blood, meaning that if he consumes too much it, she will pass out. This means that Ryuko’s transformations run on a time limit, and even be cut shorter if she sustains wounds that cause her to lose serious amounts of blood. While their time limits are very long by the end of the series, lasting about an hour or so in the final battle, this limitation still exists all the same.
In a similar vein, Ryuko can be prevented from transforming if one manages to restrict her ability to feed Senketsu blood, a weakness that has been previously exploited by Tsumugu in their first encounter when he prevented her from using her Seki Tekko. And when Ryuko activates Senketsu, a powerful bioenergy flows through his Life Fibers. That means that if even a piece of Senketsu is missing, they cannot transform. However, when Satsuki had possession of the Seki Tekko for a time, Ryuko could use her own skin to help the bioenergy flow through Senketsu, but this would kill her in a short period of time if she didn’t manage to get the Seki Tekko back.. Thankfully, it seems that due to their regenerative abilities, this does not pose a problem for them after they transform, given how often they get torn to pieces without powering down.
Senketsu has multiple Banshi threads in his body, though the exact number is unknown. Should an opponent somehow pull all of them out however, he will fall apart and Ryuko will be left vulnerable. Ryuko’s healing factor stems from the half-Life Fiber physiology. Should the Life Fibers in certain parts of her body be severed/destroyed, she will lose her ability to regenerate from fatal wounds. Also, the Life Fibers originate from her heart. Should her heart be destroyed, she will instantly die.
While she has managed to break out of them before, Ryuko is still susceptible to attacks which target the mind, having been mind controlled by Ragyo’s mind stitching technique, and later being brainwashed when she was forced to put on Junketsu. Finally, while Ryuko can be clever in a fight, strategy isn’t typically her go-to, and she prefers to rush in and simply overpower enemies with her physical abilities.
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